Lenovo’s $2.9 billion acquisition of Motorola has been finalized

Lenovo announced in January that it was going to buy Motorola Mobility from Google, but the acquisition has only been officially finalized earlier today. The transaction has been completed for the previously announced sum of $2.9 billion, which is definitely a lot of money, but it’s still pretty low considering that we’re talking about Motorola here. The company is one of the most important smartphone manufacturers in the world and has been at the top of the priority list when it comes to Android updates. What’s even more surprising is that Google paid no less than a jaw dropping $12.5 billion to acquire Motorola back in 2011. Quite a difference.

However, Google will not come empty handed as a result of this transaction as it gets to keep the majority of Motorola’s patent portfolio and will no doubt use them to manufacturer various devices in the future. The search giant will also receive shares of Lenovo’s stock worth about $750 million plus $660 million in cash and $1.5 billion in a 3-year promissory note. All in all, this is not a bad deal for Google because it gets to keep a lot of the patents and also gets a decent amount of money to boot. However, Lenovo gets something even better in the form of the Motorola brand, which is arguably much more valuable. The Chinese giant also gets the rest of Motorola’s patents and about 3,500 new employees, most of which are situated in the US.

“Today we achieved a historic milestone for Lenovo and for Motorola – and together we are ready to compete, grow and win in the global smartphone market,” said Lenovo chairman and CEO Yang Yuanqing in a press release. “By building a strong number three and a credible challenger to the top two in smartphones, we will give the market something it has needed: choice, competition and a new spark of innovation.”